Growing Change follows the filmmaker's journey to understand why current food systems leave hundreds of millions of people in hunger. It's a journey to understand how the world will feed itself in the future in the face of major environmental challenges.

The documentary begins with an investigation of the 2008 global food crisis, looking at the long-term underlying causes. Will expanding large-scale, energy-intensive agriculture, be the solution or re problems? If we already produce enough food to feed the world why do so many people go hungry?

After hearing about efforts in Venezuela to develop a more equitable and sustainable food and agriculture system, the filmmaker heads there to see if it's working and find out what we might be able to learn from this giant experiment.

We meet people in the cities and in the countryside and learn that while Venezuela once had a strong agriculture sector it was left behind as the country became a major oil exporting economy in the 20th century. After decades of urbanisation, government neglect for agriculture, and dependent on food imports, Venezuela faced a food crisis of its own. In may ways the country was a microcosm of the challenges facing much of the world today.

But the documentary takes us through a new food system as it's being constructed almost from scratch.

We meet farmers who are gaining access to land for the first time and working in cooperatives to break the country's reliance on imports.

In lush costal villages we meet cocoa producers who are now protected against being paid below the minimum price and are now involved in the local processing of chocolate rather than just exporting raw beans.

We head out to sea with fisherfolk who are benefiting from new regulations that ban industrial trawling.

In the chaotic metropolis of Caracas we find urban gardens thriving and supplementing diets with fresh organic produce. We go inside shops where the urban poor have access to affordable food.

It's all part of a country-wide process towards "food sovereignty", driven by communities and the government. At the core of the process are principles of social justice and sustainability.

It's an inspirational story full of lively characters, thought provoking insights, stunning scenery and ideas to transform the food system.

2 min ·
WHAT’S ORGANIC ABOUT “ORGANIC?” rings the alarm for the need to develop an ecological consciousness. The film illustrates that the organic food debate extends well beyond personal choice and into the realm of social responsibility.
Each of the film’s characters is intimately...

53 min ·
Having discovered how to manipulate DNA, the blueprint of life, corporate scientists can produce what they claim are stronger, more disease-resistant crops. However, fears that Genetically Modified Food may not be safe for humans or the environment has sparked violent...

59 min ·
In the mid 1980s, scientists unlocked the genetic keys to manipulating our world. Suddenly everything seemed possible! There would be no more hunger or malnutrition; diseases would be vanquished and poverty wiped out. But twenty years on the situation looks very different...

20 min ·
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2 min ·
The film, narrated by Peter and produced and directed by Tom and Barbara Burstyn, features Peter Proctor of New Zealand, the father of bio-dynamic agriculture. The documentary highlights his journey throughout India helping farmers revive their poisoned soil. Various...

2 min ·
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental...

30 min ·
This 30-minute documentary focuses on Permaculture and Organic Farming in South Africa and what it can do to transform society at a grass roots level, to create sustainable lives for individuals, communities and South Africa as a whole.
The documentary aims to educate the...

48 min ·
More than 96 per cent of all the food grown in Britain is reliant on synthetic fertiliser. Without it there would be serious trouble. But without artificial fertiliser there's not enough nutrients for the crops to grow, and without ploughing there is nothing to aerate the...

3 min ·
Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate...

14 min ·
By tradition, it’s called “the farm bill.” To EWG it ought to be the “food bill.” And instead of spending billions of your dollars in ways that harm water quality and wildlife, it should invest in protecting those resources.
A “food bill” would tackle some of the damage that...

2 min ·
There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America — a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.
The Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented...

33 min ·
If we can make radical changes in how we think about our relationship to nature and economic growth, we will see restored, vibrant ecosystems and healthy, prosperous farmers, cows, consumers, employees, investors and future children. So says the iconic food entrepreneur...

Nathan Revercomb ·
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Judith Friedlander ·
Reducing your carbon footprint by eating less red meat rarely gets attention.
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Eric Blair ·
The food industry is no longer a free market. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it's becoming the most glaring example of corporate-government fascism in America. Actual monopolies fully control the basic building blocks of the food that makes up the majority of the...

Richard Register ·
The ongoing economic crisis that began with the unraveling of wildly inflated real estate prices and the Wall Street derivatives bubble in 2007 and the crash into near depression in October of 2008 resulted in trillions of dollars of public bail out money for banks and...

Vice Motherboard ·
What’s the number one reason we riot? The plausible, justifiable motivations of trampled-upon humanfolk to fight back are many—poverty, oppression, disenfranchisement, etc—but the big one is more primal than any of the above. It’s hunger, plain and simple. If there’s a single...

Paul Glover ·
This article proposes issuing Hour-denominated currency nationwide, to stimulate creative and ecological economies, make grants to community groups, and make interest-free loans.
Twenty years ago I started printing money. Soon after, residents of Ithaca, New York, began...

Tim Hjersted ·
The last 30 years have seen a protracted crisis in American agriculture. We have fewer farmers, less land, a degraded soil base and intensifying corporate control over production, processing and technology. With 58 being the average age of farmers in America, there is a...

Films For Action ·
Members of the sustainable food movement are furious and, frankly, we have a right to be. Last month's decision by the USDA to fully deregulate GE alfalfa isn't just a minor skirmish in a long and exhausting battle. It threatens the existence of organic farming and...

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